Even though I have lived in San Diego for more than 30 years, I never cease to be amazed by the wonderful people and stories that are to be discovered here. This region has a long history of pioneers who created something from nothing, entrepreneurs who followed dreams that turned into extraordinary institutions and innovators who have built companies with global stature. In the Sunday, June 11 edition of the Financial Times of London, on their list of the 500 largest global companies, Qualcomm and Biogen/IDEC were among the first 100 on the list. These are companies that didn’t exist 25 years ago. UCSD, barely 44 years old, recently placed 13th in an international ranking of universities conducted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University — an extraordinary achievement for an institution that didn’t even exist when I was an undergraduate at Pomona College in the 1960s.

Another such story is the Burnham Institute, which this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary under the able leadership of Dr. John Reed. I recently was part of a quiet celebration of this 30th anniversary, a tribute to its recently turned 91-year-old, very beautiful and intellectually engaged co-founder, Lillian Fishman. Lillian Fishman is a living treasure in our region who only a handful of people have met and about whom the majority of people in this community know little or nothing. And yet, had it not been for the adventurous spirit of Lillian and her husband, already in their 60s, facing retirement from Tufts, the world-class Burnham Institute would not be in our community.

The birthday celebration brought together 85 extraordinary women who wanted to express their admiration and appreciation of Lillian’s contributions to San Diego. Hosted by Malin and Roberta Burnham, I had the privilege of engaging in a conversation with Lillian in front of all the guests. What is so fascinating about the Fishmans is that at an age when everyone else in the country was planning their retirements, they decided they wanted to start a new life and a new research center. They literally got in their car and traveled West, exploring the coast of California and deciding that where they wanted to wind up was La Jolla.

The Fishmans were determined to continue their research because of Dr. Fishman’s groundbreaking work in the early 1970s, which confirmed that cancer cell development was inextricably linked with developmental biology. His work, as well as that of a number of other researchers across the county, was defining a new field of cancer research, “oncodevelopment biology.” It combined the study of cancer development with the development of normal cells. Dr. Fishman was a founding member of the International Society for Oncodevelopment Biology and Medicine and was so engaged in his research that instead of adapting to the age-mandated retirement requirements of Tufts University, decided to continue his work in a more independent setting.

Thanks to a cancer conference in San Diego supported by the Kroc Foundation, the Fishmans were introduced to the burgeoning life sciences community on the Torrey Pines Mesa — the Salk Institute, the UCSD School of Medicine and the Scripps Research Institute. They knew that the existence of these institutions represented a promising and fertile ground within which they could do work they wanted to do. In 1976 Fishman and his lifelong partner Lillian co-founded the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation. They transferred a single grant with a budget of less than $200,000 to this new foundation and within five years it grew to be designated as a national cancer institute. Today, a mere 30 years later, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, renamed in 1996 thanks to the generous support of the Burnham Foundation, has grown to a faculty of 71, a staff of 745 and a budget in excess of $80 million.

The story behind the startup growth of the Institute is extraordinary. At the luncheon in her honor, Lillian Fishman shared how the welcoming and collaborative character of San Diego was the real key to their success. Early trustees were local businessmen such as George Ellis of La Jolla Bank and Trust and Dr. William Drell, founder of Calbiochem, the first biological company on the Torrey Pines Mesa. Clifford Grobstein, the dean of the UCSD School of Medicine at that time, served as the founding chair of their advisory board. Mrs. Fishman shared with us that as the Institute was getting set up, its first major piece of equipment, an electron microscope, was personally loaned to them by Jonas Salk from the Salk Institute and fully used until the Friends Group, an auxiliary founded by Mrs. Fishman, was able to raise the money to purchase an electron microscope. Mrs. Fishman described how even small pieces of laboratory equipment were shared and borrowed from the UCSD School of Medicine and the Scripps Research Institute, so that they could get their work going full steam ahead.

What is so incredible about the story of the early days of the Burnham Institute is that it can be echoed 100 times across San Diego. From the 1950s onward, this community has rallied to build new capabilities and new institutions that have positioned it to be one of the most competitive regions and economies of the 21st Century. Yes, pioneers and innovators began to travel to our shores in the 1950s and 1960s. But it was the enlightened decisions of city fathers to make land on Torrey Pines Mesa available at little or no cost to important institutions such as UCSD and Salk that created the platform from which inventors and innovators could build new kinds of institutions. This was not an overly bureaucratic process or even a formal process — it was very much a process of community members doing the right thing. The story of Lillian and William Fishman, who came here with a small grant, big dreams and a lot of new best friends in the 1970s, giving rise to the extraordinary Burnham Institute for Medical Research, is one of many such stories.

We are fortunate to have an institution such as the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in the San Diego region. We are blessed with living treasures such as Lillian Fishman, but we should also be proud that the imagination and collaborative spirit which were the seed corn for the transformation of this region in the 1950s and 1960s, are alive and well today. This is clearly exhibited by the recent stem cell collaborative announced by the four major life science research institutions on the Torrey Pines Mesa, the growth of IT2 at UCSD and the exciting new focus of the San Diego Dialogue on building crossborder innovation and competitiveness. San Diego is poised to continue its leadership role well into the 21st Century, thanks to its collaborative culture and wonderful array of “living treasures.”

The associate vice chancellor of public programs and dean of University Extension at UCSD, Mary Walshok is available at mwalshok@ucsd.edu.